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Jeff Scott Soto: Wide Awake ...

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR

4.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 28.10.2020 | Released: 06.11.2020

The many musical incarnations and experiences of vocal troubadour Jeff Scott Soto are lengthy and legendary. Just look at the curriculum vitae of his discography in the Wikipedia entry. His affiliations are a veritable "who's who" of the rock and metal recording industry. Yngwie Malmsteen. Talisman. Stryper. Lita Ford. TSO. Steelheart. The Rock Star film soundtrack. The list goes on and on. But then he finds time to record his own music as a solo artist. Jeff Scott Soto delivers his latest and seventh long player album, Wide Awake (In My Dreamland) on the Frontiers Music label. The album arrives with a bonus live album recorded at Frontiers Rock Festival in 2019.

Jeff Scott Soto

With this new album Soto departs little from his classic hard rock history. With Frontiers in-house producer on hand to produce and assist in songwriting, you also expect nothing less than exceptional AOR rock. So expect songs with much rock rhythm and groove, large vocal arrangements, bold guitar work and thrilling solos, and memorable catchy refrains.

Major riff roaring rockers come with Mystified, Paper Wings, Someone To Love, and the quick moving AOR anthem Love's Blind, wherein Soto sounds both smooth and strong. Alternatively, Soto and company can get hard and heavy, metalish as it were, and fast with Living In A Dream and Desperate. Love Will Find A Way has this quirky muted started, but quickly develops with a sharp guitar line before Soto joins in and the rhythm and groove rises heavy. The closest thing to a ballad comes with Without You. Beginning with voice and piano, the song rises heavy towards the middle, only to mellow shortly thereafter with a vocal breakdown, then a big guitar solo follows.

With Wide Awake (In My Dreamland), Jeff Scott Soto, in fine vocal form, delivers an impressive and entertaining of AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With Wide Awake (In My Dreamland),Jeff Scott Soto, in fine vocal form, delivers an impressive and entertaining of AOR melodic hard rock. Easily recommended.

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]

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